So, how is Deb Olin Unferth writing? I would think Unferth is aiming for an audience of people who done some pretty stupid things and have lost themselves when in love, just like her. Some webpages say there is no correct or incorrect diction, just an appropriate one for whoever one addresses. What word choice would be suitable for this memoir about a woman who "[falls] in love and went to join the war?" Well, opposite to what I first thought, Unferth uses a broad vocabulary. Most of the words she uses are very simple, but others I have never heard before. The words she uses are so straightforward I thought English was Unferth's second language. I do feel Unferth's tone is neutral, but she does try to share with the readers how naive she was in terms of her love for George and uses pathos for us to feel sympathetic as we read what she went through.
For the couple, it soon became "us against them." (25) Whatever they confronted and Unferth's feeling towards this were shown with the intensity of their words and actions.
Geroge and Deb work in a school where children who have seen their villages being burned down and hid in the bushes as their parent were ruthlessly murdered. "The first night of [her] civil war job [Deb] vomited four times." (33) That's pathos right there. Even though the couple's decisions have been stupid, I actually want to help these people. But on the other hand, when Unferth talks about a man she visited in her childhood, a man who "was blind but ... knew where the pictures on his walls and would bring [Unferth and her brother] and make [them] stand there. He could also play the ukelele. He was the most boring man I've ever known." (30) With this tasteless description about boring person Unferth passed on to me her feelings towards this old man.
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